Top Sales Closing Techniques

By Humanadmin | 09/26/2024

So you put in the hard work, you hooked your prospect, you got to the decision-maker, and you’re at the finish line – it’s now time to close the sale.

Time to celebrate? Not quite yet…

A shocking 64% of reps don’t actually end up closing the deal. (and unsurprisingly enough, only 10% of customers will close themselves).

So, why aren’t most reps closing? Hint: there are 5 main reasons.

You Feel Too Pushy & Lack Confidence

I get it – you don’t want to come off as the “used car” sales rep and hound someone to get your deal finalized. Or maybe you’re just nervous and don’t have the full confidence to take that last step.

When you lack the confidence to ask for the close, you’re letting them stay in an endless loop of research and evaluation without clear next steps. The reality is you should be offering clear steps on the VERY FIRST CALL to lead them into the evaluation phase.

Think about it like this: when you go to buy coffee in the morning or stop to pick up lunch, do you walk up and order? Or do you wait for someone to ask you what you want? You probably stared at the menu figuring out what to get and then someone asked if they could take your order, right? They prompted you out of your research and evaluation mode into the bottom half of the funnel!

Helping lead them into those next phases is the core of being a sales rep! It’s not pushy, and not doing it shows a lack of confidence. This is where you decide if you are a true salesperson or not.

You Don’t Know How To Ask

If you’re worried it sounds too good to be true – it’s not! You can literally just ASK them questions to inch closer to the close. Okay, so the reality is that a lot of those go-to closes rely on cheesy or crappy tactics.

You Need More Customer Info

Don’t make the super embarrassing mistake of lacking customer insight and information by the time you get all the way to closing!

CSO Insights estimates that 26% of deals are actually LOST because sellers weren’t fully aligned to a buyer’s needs before closing. Save yourself the time and hassle by making sure you know these before you get to close:

What is the agreed customer goal or pain?
What is the “why” behind the buy/value to them?
What’s their budget & timeline?
What does their buying process look like?
What is their current state vs. desired state?
Are there other options/competition?
Any personal motivation here?

You’re Out of the Closing Habit

Closing is a muscle just like anything else – if you aren’t exercising it, you’re not going to know what to do with it when the time comes to use it!

You can close every single call you have with something we like to call closing for commitment.

Think about football for a second. You’ve got your first downs to lock it in – and instead of having to go all the way back, you get to start on THAT yard line. Now when you apply to this sales – even if it’s something small you’re getting a customer to make a commitment to you. That means next time you’re starting from THAT point! You’re taking up mindshare with them.

You’ll never have to ask yourself if it’s closed because you will know and you will OWN exactly what you need to do.

You Don’t Know When to Close

Can you guess the most critical stage when it comes to closing?

Gong did a study on this, and believe it or not – the qualification stage is MOST important. Close rates decline by 71% when the next steps are not covered on that first call. Plus – deals that closed the fastest spent 1.53 times MORE talking about those next steps compared to other deals.

If you have a well-defined sales process, you’re 33% more likely to close your deals (TAS Group). And if you don’t know how to gauge when that is or how it plays out – do a trial close! Try something different!

We specialize in High-performance Human Behavior training

Posted in Private

You Feel Too Pushy & Lack Confidence

You Don’t Know How To Ask

You Need More Customer Info

You’re Out of the Closing Habit

You Don’t Know When to Close

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